Over 1,100 village resource persons (VRPs) working in Cooch Behar individually wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanding job regularisation and pay hike.

The VRPs, who were engaged by the state government in 2015-16, are assigned various tasks in villages, ranging from health surveys to social audits and organising awareness campaigns.

“The state government had recruited us through proper process and the minimum eligibility was 60 per cent marks in Madhyamik exams. Around 33,000 VRPs were recruited across Bengal. We are given work for around 240 days a year (around 20 days a month) and are paid Rs 150 per day. But after all these years, we want our pay to be increased. Many of us run our families solely with this earning and are finding it tough to make ends meet,” said Sanu Sarkar, secretary of the Cooch Behar district unit of the Sara Bangla Gramin Sampad Karim Sangathan, an association of VRPs.

On Thursday, 1,157 VRPs reached the head post-office in the town and each posted a letter to the chief minister.

“We have always been with the state government and have also joined all public meetings and other political activities of the Trinamul Congress in the district. We have high expectations from the chief minister and feel that she will understand our problems and take the initiative to make us permanent employees,” said Anukul Burman, a VRP and assistant secretary of the association in Cooch Behar.

Burman said a portion of the money they earn (around Rs 3,000 a month) is spent on transport as they have to travel to villages.

“Also, we get our wages every four to five months. My family is entirely dependent on my earnings. These days I have to scout for odd jobs to augment my income. All of us have mentioned in the letters that if no decision is taken by the government by March 25, we will be forced to launch an indefinite hunger strike from the next day,” he said.

Around 1,200 VRPs work in 128 panchayats of Cooch Behar district, said sources.